The Scorching Sun - 3

At A-High, Sunday afternoons still meant classes, and senior students were expected to arrive early for self-study.

Yan Lie got to school right after breakfast. He slung his bag onto the side of his desk, then found himself waiting, almost unconsciously, for Fang Zhuo to show up.

He wasn't sure where this curiosity came from, this inexplicable sliver of attention he was paying to his new deskmate.

In the end, Fang Zhuo didn't arrive until around one in the afternoon, a full twenty minutes after self-study had already started.

She eased the back door open and slipped in quietly. A chill radiated off her as she neared. Without saying a word, she set down her backpack, grabbed a spare jacket and a small brush from beside her desk, then immediately turned to leave again. The whole sequence was so quick Yan Lie didn't even get a chance to open his mouth. 

He watched her the whole time. She was still wearing yesterday's clothes, the tops of her shoes were caked in mud, the fabric half-dry and half-wet. It seemed like she hadn't gone home last night.

All at once, the urge to go to the bathroom became strangely urgent.

Yan Lie set down his workbook, grabbed a pack of tissues on instinct, and followed her out.

She wasn't in the restroom. Tracking the sound of running water, Yan Lie took a step toward the nearby supply closet. There she was, crouched by the little trough they used for rinsing mops, her head bent over her shoes as she scrubbed them.

The sink was too low for comfort. Fang Zhuo was squatting on the floor in her bare feet, her spine hunched. The position looked deeply uncomfortable.

And those canvas shoes. The color had already faded; they didn't seem great quality to begin with, the toes already splitting at the glued seams. With the force she was scrubbing them now, they probably wouldn’t survive much longer.

Yan Lie thought to himself, Why?

Why did she have to go around looking like some tragic abandoned stray, radiating misery from every angle?

***

After finally scrubbing the mud from her shoes, Fang Zhuo turned them upside down and squeezed out the excess water. She stood to stretch out her aching back, planning to spot clean the mud splatters on her school uniform jacket while she was at it.

On the way back, because the surface of a puddle had been reflecting light, she'd accidentally stepped right into it. A spray of dark water had kicked up and landed on her jacket.

The smell had been awful, rank and fishy. She lathered up a bar of soap and rubbed it over every spot where the mud had marked the fabric.

The first period was almost over. Fang Zhuo wanted to hurry and get all of this mess dealt with before the bell.

A dull knocking suddenly rapped against the doorframe. It came several times in succession before she realised it was directed at her.

She looked over. The first thing her gaze landed on was a pair of plain white sneakers. A pale, bony hand set the shoes down on the floor and nudged them forward. Then a figure emerged from behind the wall, crouched down, and waved a hand at her.

Light spilling through the corridor windows caught in his light-brown hair, bleaching it almost gold, making his sunny grin seem all the more radiant. "If they don't fit, go exchange them at the shop," he said. Then, as casually as he’d come, he stood and left.

Him again.

Fang Zhuo lowered her eyes.

Were they even that close?

She finished washing her jacket, rinsed her feet, and slipped the shoes on.

They fit well enough. The soles were just a little too stiff.

She carried her things back to the classroom, set the shoes on the storage rack at the back, and draped the jacket over the back of her chair. She sat in the last row, it wouldn’t bother anyone.

Shen Musi, sitting in the row ahead, turned around and knocked on Yan Lie’s desk. "Lie-ge, did you finish the English worksheet? Let me copy."

Without looking up from his game, Yan Lie said, "Already lent it out. Go find it yourself."

Fang Zhuo had just gotten back from filling her water bottle and sat down. Yan Lie lifted his eyes. "Ask Fang Zhuo. She definitely finished it."

Shen Musi had already started turning away. Hearing this, he awkwardly pivoted back around toward Fang Zhuo.

Fang Zhuo paused, took a sip of water, and asked with an odd note to her voice, "You want to copy mine?"

"I, uh..." Shen Musi wasn't familiar with her either. He braced himself. "Can I?”

"Do you know what I got on the last English test?" Fang Zhuo said.

The way she said it carried such an imperious, ‘Do you know who my father is?’ kind of flair that it threw Shen Musi off. He asked with seriousness, "What?"

He remembered most of the top scorers in every subject. Fang Zhuo's math and combined sciences were decent, but her English… he couldn't recall anything notable.

Fang Zhuo said flatly, "Seventy-two."

The two boys: "..."

"So you're the one who just scraped the pass mark last time? I thought it was Shitou. I was too embarrassed to ask." Shen Musi muttered under his breath. Then immediately shot a nervous glance at Fang Zhuo, afraid he'd upset her.

But she just nodded calmly. "My English isn't very good," she admitted.

Yan Lie laughed. He abandoned his game and set his phone down. "Wait a sec."

After a quick lap around the classroom, he soon tracked down the worksheet he’d lent out.

Shen Musi's face lit up, raising both hands high in preparation to receive it, cooing with shameless flattery, "Thanks, Lie Lie!"

Instead, Yan Lie lifted the paper high above Shen Musi’s reach, sidestepped him, and dropped it onto Fang Zhuo’s desk. "Here. Ask me if you don't understand something,” he said magnanimously. 

Shen Musi's smile froze solid. He looked to Yan Lie, ready to protest, but the guy simply ignored him. So he turned to glance at Fang Zhuo, she was already pulling out her own worksheet. He hedged, "Fang Zhuo…jie, copying's not really your lane. Your grades, uh, suit the natural, original approach better."

Shen Musi had started school early. He was a year or two younger than the rest of their class, not very tall, and still had a boyish look about him. But that "jie"—that honorific had burst out purely on survival instinct.

Yan Lie grabbed a book and bopped him lightly on the head. "You telling her what to do?"

In truth, Fang Zhuo had already finished the worksheet. She quickly checked her multiple-choice answers against Yan Lie’s, then passed her paper over to Shen Musi.

The young comrade accepted it joyfully. "Thanks, Fang Zhuo..." The final syllable had barely left his mouth when he caught the expressionless look on Fang Zhuo’s face and instinctively added, “…jie.”

Fang Zhuo never had a younger brother this polite. She didn’t know why Shen Musi behaved like a mouse cornered by a cat every time he saw her, but he was, on balance, a good deal more endearing than her half-brother. She gave a restrained little hum in acknowledgment.

Shen Musi silently turned back around, nursing his own confusion.

***

After evening self-study, the students dispersed in twos and threes. Fang Zhuo tidied her desk and returned to the dormitory alone.

By the time her roommates got back, she was already crouched on the narrow balcony, doing laundry.

The girls sat on the edges of their beds chatting idly while waiting for their turns in the shower.

A small orange bulb glowed on the balcony, attracting swarms of insects.

The first girl to finish showering dragged out a little stool to sit across from Fang Zhuo. She'd barely gotten her clothes wet and soaped up before beginning her battle against mosquitoes.

Glancing into Fang Zhuo’s basin, she couldn’t help saying "Fang Zhuo, you don't have to wash your stuff that often. This school blazer for example, Xiaoxi only washes hers once a week."

The girl inside, currently applying lotion, yelled out at this, "Why are you using me as an example? You wash yours once a week too!"

The first girl burst out laughing. She wrung out the clothes in her hands and hung them on the drying rack.

There was a knock at the door. The visitor stood outside the open wooden door, craning her neck to peer inside. "Is Fang Zhuo here?"

Fang Zhuo dried her hands and walked over.

"For you." The short-haired girl smiled. "Takoyaki. Bai Lufei sent it. There’s milk too.”

Fang Zhuo looked down at the takeout container. Before she could respond, the girl quickly added, "He said if you don't want it, just throw it away yourself.”

Fang Zhuo's brow furrowed. The last few days had left her exhausted, she had no energy for this kind of nonsense. The boy's casual, presumptuous attitude grated on her especially. She took the container. "How much?" 

The short haired girl, who was already turning to leave, looked back. "Huh?"

Fang Zhuo pulled a ten-yuan note from her pocket, smoothed it flat and pressed it into the girl's hand. Her voice was level, but anyone could hear the displeasure in it. "Tell him not to send things to our dorm again, or I'm going to start suspecting he's a shill for the snack street vendors. And don’t bring things over for him anymore. We're not close.”

The short-haired girl was still blinking in surprise when Fang Zhuo closed the door shut.

Fang Zhuo tossed the container onto the table, leaned back against the head of her bed, and sat there in heavy silence. After a while, she reached for the notes by her bedside and began flipping through them absentmindedly.

Wei Xi eyed the figure shrouded in shadow. "Fang Zhuo, are you going to eat that?”

Fang Zhuo shook her head.

Wei Xi: "Then sell it to me. I'm hungry."

"No need. Just have it," Fang Zhuo replied. 

Wei Xi came over with money in hand, smiling. "If you won't take it, how about I trade you some snacks or fruit?"

Fang Zhuo hesitated for a long moment, taking the money after all.

Wei Xi had actually already brushed her teeth. She stabbed a few octopus balls with a toothpick, then shared the rest with the other girls in the dorm to finish off.

Soon after, the dormitory's power was cut off for the night. They all freshened up once more and climbed into their beds.

The air still held a trace of bonito flake and savory sauce. Wei Xi couldn't help complaining:

"Those guys from the class next door are so full of themselves. It's senior year already and their grades are garbage. Who wants to date them? Do they have zero self-awareness?"

“It’s not even the grades. They’re just childish. Someone needs to keep them in line.”

Fang Zhuo just pillowed her head on her arm, silent.

"Good thing the guys in our class are mostly normal."

“Well, birds of a feather. We've got Yan Lie to set the tone. The guys over there just love stirring things up."

Fang Zhuo's eyelid twitched at the name.

"Lie-ge's definitely solid. Otherwise, why else would they hate him? He's just too much of a clueless straight guy sometimes."

Wei Xi laughed. "You’ve got it backward. The fact that such a clueless straight guy still gets girls interested is why they hate him."

"Right, Fang Zhuo, next time some guy bothers you, just say you like Yan Lie. Lie-ge’s basically a professional shield at this point. He’s doomed to stay single anyway. He won't mind.” 

Fang Zhuo turned over. "A clueless straight guy?" she asked, her voice tinged with doubt.

Wei Xi said, "Yeah, Yan Lie’s a total clueless straight guy. Not considerate, not attentive, hasn't got the faintest clue of what girls want. Can't hold a deep conversation with a girl, always dodging with jokes and changing the subject. Or, he'd have had a girlfriend ages ago."

Fang Zhuo pondered this.

Him? A clueless straight guy?

Their standards were absurdly high. 

---

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